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Cape Town - South Africa's Standard Bank and China's ICBC are working on 60 deals on the African continent, the chief executive of Africa's biggest bank by assets said on Thursday.
Standard Bank CEO Jacko Maree told Reuters in an interview it was a "good time" to look for interesting opportunities abroad.
"There are 60 deals that we're working with them (ICBC) on the continent. It's in all manner of things from oil-related transactions to mining-related transactions, a range of infrastructures," Maree said on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum Africa summit in Cape Town.
"We've got plenty to do but we also understand that this is a good time to keep your eyes open because something interesting might pop out of the woodwork."
Industrial and Commercial Bank of China owns 20 percent of Standard Bank. The two firms said last month they would finance the expansion of a coal power station in Botswana for $825m over 20 years.
Standard Bank last month scaled back its full-year earnings expectations as trading conditions worsened, and Maree reiterated that 2009 was going to be a difficult year.
"This is going to be a very tough year, I think for everybody, and hopefully things will start improving quite a little bit in 2010," he said.
South Africa is battling with its first recession in 17 years and local banks have been hard hit by mounting bad debts at their retail and corporate units as consumers and corporates struggle to pay back loans after a series of interest rate hikes up to June 2008.
- Reuters